TFSA limit 2026: how much can you actually contribute?

The TFSA contribution limit for 2026 is $7,000. That is the figure that circulates every January, and it is also the least useful one to you: it describes what the government adds to your room this year, not what you can actually deposit.

The useful number is your personal room. It is almost always higher — sometimes by a lot — and it follows a timing rule that costs money to anyone who misses it.

Room accrues whether you use it or not

Every year since 2009, the annual limit has been added to your room. There is nothing to claim, nothing to report, and no expiry date: unused room carries forward indefinitely.

In practice: someone who was already 18 when the TFSA was created and has never contributed has $109,000 available today. Not $7,000 — the sum of eighteen years of limits.

Three conditions decide whether a year grants you any: it must be 2009 or later, you must have turned 18 in it, and you must have been a Canadian resident. Each grants the whole year — turning 18 on December 30 is enough to receive that year's full limit.

Unlike the RRSP, no earned income enters the calculation and you do not need to have filed a return.

The rule that costs 1% a month

Here is the one most people learn too late. Withdrawing from your TFSA only returns the room on January 1 of the following year. Never in the year of the withdrawal.

The scenario is always the same. You take out $10,000 in March for an unexpected expense. The expense does not happen. You put the $10,000 back in September, thinking you have only returned your own money. You are then over by $10,000 for four months.

The Canada Revenue Agency charges 1% per month on the highest excess in each month, for as long as it remains. It is not a one-time fine: in this example, roughly $400. And the notice of assessment usually arrives well after the fact, once the penalty has been running for months.

There is a less obvious practical consequence: if you expect a withdrawal and a re-contribution close together, withdraw in December rather than January. The room then comes back weeks later instead of almost twelve months later.

Why the CRA's figure doesn't settle it

Your room appears in My Account on the CRA's site. It is the official source — and it is a year behind. The amount shown is as of January 1.

The reason is administrative: your financial institution reports contributions and withdrawals after the calendar year ends, not continuously. Everything you have done since January 1 is therefore missing from the figure, often until the following spring.

The CRA remains the only authority on your actual history, especially if you have changed institutions. But to know what you can deposit today, you have to take its figure and apply the current year to it yourself.

Run it on your own numbers

Atlas's TFSA contribution room calculator applies these rules to your situation from four numbers: your year of birth, everything you have ever contributed, your withdrawals from earlier years, and your withdrawals from this one. That last field is what changes everything — it is what separates the room you have now from the room you will have in January.

It is free, needs no account, and nothing is sent anywhere: the calculation happens in your browser. If your question is rather which of the two accounts to prioritize, we wrote about that in TFSA or RRSP: which account comes first?